DYRL VF-1S

April https://tamashii.jp/item/12990/

It tis not.

Add me to the list. Hobby Search is in. Stoked.

Sweet thanks for clarifying

Totally. Well with your Tenso address you should be able to get the Strike Parts yourself now. Here’s the addy. You might have to refresh a couple of times because it sometimes goes wonky since you’re accessing from international IP address. But keep refreshing and it will work. https://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000136313/

Didn’t you purchase Strike Packs from NY too or is that what you used the Tenso address for?

Ummm... yup.

Just got the NY update. Strike Parts are releasing 12/23 it would seem.

Sweet did you land?

Totally. There's no excuse for these business tactics regardless of what your cultural norms are. That's why I stick to only procuring through a handful of retailers who seem to be solid in that area and will give my business elsewhere if any of them turn to these tactics.

Very cool! My cousin and his family are from there too. They are coming to visit me in the states soon. You have a few good shops in Singapore from what I understand! Lo Tendo seems decent. Wish we had that in the States. Oh and very happy to hear that Play-Asia is taking care of your situation. Nice.

No problem. Hope it helps someone next time they have to interact on an issue. NY is a tough one btw. They outsource some of their customer service to different places, and so does A-E. You might get someone from Japan, but you also might get someone from France (NY) or Russia (AE). HLJ is pretty Americanized and cater to the West so that's why everyone generally has good things to say about their service. Anyway, just a few observations I've made over time.

There's been a lot of discussion on the board the past several days regarding the customer service of these different retail shops. For someone from the west, some of the practices/experiences cited seem head-scratching, but you have to keep in mind that there is often a cultural difference in Asia-Pac. (I know that some of the customer service reps one might speak to are outsourced to other places, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep this to Asia.) For the most part, we in the West (Canada, USA, UK, Australia) are a very individualistic culture. Me, me, me, I, I, I. So, we demand personal service. However, in Asia, it is often a collectivist culture. Saving face for another person, looking out for the group as a whole - it's about "we". This isn't to prescribe some type of formula but often gives insight to why someone might handle a complaint the way they do. In @Tenbatsu case, it's likely that they don't normally let you deny a refund, but his individualistic approach of demanding higher personal customer service for their mistake may have been embarrassing to the rep he escalated to. So, to save face, the upper mgmt went above and beyond to appease the situation for the greater good of Play-Asia. In the reverse, it would've been normal for a person in collectivist culture to graciously accept the refund and be understanding of their situation (even if unhappy with it). In this case, Tenbatsu was going against cultural norms (even though in the West it's perfectly acceptable). Sometimes, even when we think we're being polite, we're really not being polite for a collectivist culture. We're being polite for our own individualistic culture. And we scratch our heads wondering why we are met with unfavorable results. It may be because we're actually not being perceived as polite. Anyway, this comes from professional experience as I deal with cross-cultural communication. And it interests me in general. Of course, this is just an educated guess, but just bringing to light that we in the West make demands that are normal for us and even polite, but absolutely not normal in other cultures, specifically dealing with those companies that are based (or claim to be based) out of Japan. Of course, every person is different regardless of culture so it also depends on the luck of who is handling your customer service request. And many are trained to deal with American customers, for example, like AJ. But, there's no formula to this. Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt (take it or leave it) but worth considering for next time anyone needs to work with customer service from Japan. Thus far, any communication I've had has delivered very positive results.

That's kinda brilliant. Edit: Though come to think of it, I don't think that's accurate, because I landed Max on PO night and actually paid immediately instead of choosing the pay later option. People with markups were the first to receive their Max like a week before I got mine. So, the logic doesn't hold. Maybe your theory is true for those who do the markups? Like, there's two different types of stock. Those who land regular POs are from stock allocated from Bandai directly to NY, and those who do markups are from their network/mob who run out and grab stock from wherever they can (i.e. have grandmas stand in line at shops). Those in the markup stock probably do go in order of payment.

Awesome. That's a great story and glad you are able to give context! I keep looking for ways to get to Tokyo with work just so I can experience it all myself. Can't believe you saw a Yammie for 5900. Nuts. I'm still in shock that I was able to land one at HS on release as well. Mine shipped yesterday and is already at outbound customs in Tokyo.

Ah cool. Thanks for confirming!

Haha! No hating. I have a separate love for Roy too. And I can’t wait for him to release and sadly I don’t care if it’s SDFM or DYRL cuz I’ll be buying both plus a SDFM 1S Hikaru to boot if all three are made LOL

I’m no expert but it’s always been my understanding that DYRL, Hikaru, and his DYRL VF-1S in particular have traditionally been more popular in Japan. Since that is Bandai’s target audience for the Macross line it makes sense to me that they lead with his Valks. Roy and SDFM are just more popular in the States due to Robotech really. “Rick” always seemed so damn whiny and Roy a badass. Hikaru is slightly more badass in DYRL than his Robotech counterpart. Anyway, that’s just my thought. I’m sure others would disagree.

Yeah, it really only makes sense since they’re releasing the Strike Parts in Dec/Apr and showcased some of the corresponding 1As.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm trying the envision this with the stabilizers unfolded. If you look at the one on the right of the pic, if it unfolds, it would show "100" and I believe that is the one captured with the "issue." Though now that I think about it, this pic is actually showing the inside of the stabilizers so in reality they are correct as it would show "001" unfolded.

FYI... Looks like orders are closing for Strike Parts - April 2020 release on 12/22. Most of us have already purchased, but with all the talk around NY, for example, it's good to know when Bandai will actually stop accepting orders because you'll see it likely open on NY for awhile after (would be my guess anyway). https://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000136313/?_ga=2.30930111.1018093830.1574704340-159834799.1571518821 And, it seems that the "100" marking has always been and no one really caught it. Look at the product page. https://tamashii.jp/special/macross/vf-1s/

Awesome morning. Woke up to NY and Hobby Search shipped. I’m hope it’s coming for all of you as well soon.

Hey I would’ve sold you at least one of mine for “scalper” prices if you would’ve asked

For Shame! Haha. Stop what you’re doing and watch it now. Amazing.